ier. It is a great thing that
nations should have so much in common as the acknowledgment of the same
tribunal for the settlement of spiritual and religious questions, and
there is no head under which Christendom can unite with as little
disturbance as under Rome. Nothing more tends to keep men apart than
religious differences; this certainly ought not to be the case, but it
no less certainly is, and therefore we should strain many points and
subordinate our private judgment to a very considerable extent if called
upon to do so. A man, under these circumstances, is right in saying he
believes in much that he does not believe in. Nevertheless there are
limits to this, and the Church of Rome requires more of us at present
than we can by any means bring ourselves into assenting to.

It may be asked, Why have a Church at all? Why not unite in community of
negation rather than of assertion? When I wrote 'Evolution, Old and
New,' three years ago, I thought, as now, that the only possible Church
must be a development of the Church of Rome; and seeing no chance of
agreement between avowed free-thinkers, like myself, and Rome (for I
believed Rome immovable), I leaned towards absolute negation as the best
chance for unity among civilized nations; but even then, I expressed
myself as "having a strong feeling as though Professor Mivart's
conclusion is true, that 'the material universe is always and everywhere
sustained and directed by an infinite cause, for which to us the word
mind is the least inadequate and misleading symbol.'"[384]

I had hardly finished 'Evolution, Old and New,' before I began to deal
with this question according to my lights, in a series of articles upon
God[385] which appeared in the 'Examiner' during the summer of 1879, and
I returned to the same matter more than once in 'Unconscious Memory,' my
next succeeding work. The articles I intend recasting and rewriting, as
they go upon a false assumption; but subsequent reflection has only
confirmed me in the general result I arrived at--namely, the
omnipresence of mind in the universe.

I have therefore come to see that we can go farther than negation, and
in this case--a positive expression of faith as regards an invisible
universe of some sort being possible--a Church of some sort is also
possible, which shall formulate and express the general convictions as
regards man's position in respect of this faith. I think the instinct
which has led so many countries